Published: 10 March, 2014
by DAN CARRIER at Stamford Bridge

Premier League
CHELSEA 4, SPURS 0

SPURS are now playing for pride when it comes to the league, said furious manager Tim Sherwood, after watching his team fall to a 4-0 defeat at Chelsea.

The defeat leaves Spurs with virtually no chance of making the top four and Sherwood has to pick up his shell-shocked players in time for Thursday’s crunch Europa League tie at home to Benfica.

He said that while he couldn’t fault the players for the first two goals, he was visibly disappointed with the way Chelsea were allowed to score late efforts to give the result an embarrassing sheen.

Spurs haven’t won at Stamford Bridge since 1990 and, over the years, have had a lot of bad luck to blame.

Saturday was to be no different. A bungle by the usually super-cool Jan Vertonghen laid on the opener shortly after half-time, and the second came from an incorrect penalty decision that also saw the dismissal of Younes Kaboul.

In a heated post-match interview, Sherwood said: “For the first goal, anyone can slip. The second one, the penalty and the sending-off has gone against us – but it still doesn’t legislate for the capitulation.”

Sherwood added that his side “lacked character” and needed to take responsibility.

He said: “We need to show more guts. There’s a few I’d count on. There’s a few I wouldn’t. I’m not going to forget about this by the time we get on the motorway.”

He promised fans who made the trip to west London a massive response in Thursday’s home tie. 

He said: “The fans were fantastic.”

It had, for 55 minutes, been a very good afternoon for Sherwood. The rookie manager went for a formation that, at kick-off, looked baffling. A flat back four, two holding midfielders and then a front three was straightforward enough – but the choice of personnel was brave. It included right-back Kyle Walker playing nominally as a right winger but with a licence to drift inside and swap with Aaron Lennon. Lennon, usually on a flank, was asked to play up front off Emannuel Adebayor while Gylfi Sigurdsson was placed on the left.

Spurs settled into their groove with Sandro and Nabil Bentaleb breaking things up, and pushed Chelsea back through sheer hard work.

On 23, Sandro nearly opened the scoring with a dipping volley that Peter Cech saw late and did well to parry.

At the other end, Spurs survived two early scares when Samuel Eto’o sprung the offside trap but otherwise Lloris in the Tottenham goal had very little to do and, on balance, Spurs shaded the opening 45 minutes.

On 56, Eto’o opened the scoring after Vertonghen slipped. Before Spurs could catch their breath, Eto’o tumbled in the box and Kaboul was judged to have fouled him. The result was a red card and a penalty – an extremely harsh decision. It killed the game and Chelsea saw out the victory, adding two final goals in the last two minutes, both through Demba Ba.

SPURS COMMENT by Dan Carrier

IT was a defining moment: referee Michael Oliver gave a penalty and got out his red card for a foul that never was.

It turned a good, even, balanced game on its head. It turned a tough, exciting London derby into a cakewalk.

And it undid what had, until then, been a remarkable performance, not just from the Spurs XI, but from their manager. He ripped up previous gameplans and went for a bold scheme. And for 55 minutes Spurs were comfortable.

Sherwood’s 4-2-3-1 formation looked solid, creative, and was remarkable for the way personnel understood unconventional positions. Playing Kyle Walker advanced on the right, and Aaron Lennon nominally through the middle, was Subbuteo-style tactics: but it nearly worked. And while all the chitter-chatter will be of Vertonghen’s slip and refereeing errors that changed the game, it’s worth recalling the brave, outlandish line-up and the fact it was working. Tim’s tactics have been heavily criticised in the past but on Saturday you had to hand it to him.

SPURS: Lloris, Walker, Kaboul, Vertonghen, Lennon, Adebayor, Naughton, Dawson (Fryers, 71), Sigurdsson (Paulinho, 60), Sandro, Bentaleb.
Attendance: 41,598